Why is Alcohol in my Conditioner?

My cousin brought to my attention that my precious Cantu Shea ButterÂ leave-inÂ containsÂ alcohol.. What!!??? alcohol, really!? yup!… it does…. along with many of our conditioners andÂ leave-insÂ to my surprise. So I took to theÂ Google, blogs and scientific journals to find out why does ourÂ conditionersÂ have the very thing that we are trained to avoid (dryness, hard tresses, no bueno). Turns out…. ignorance is a bitch… because the ones in our conditioners/leave-ins actually are not harmful.

There are Two types ofÂ alcoholÂ

1.) DryingÂ alcoholÂ such as ethanol that can be found in hair sprays and in some hair gels (we do not like these)

2.) FattyÂ alcohols -Â behave just like an oil and found in most conditioners.

So about the Fat ones!

derived from coconut oil or palm oil
made by heating coconut oil with sodium hydroxide (but once the final product is made there are no harmful ingredients)
They help the oil and water commonly found in conditioner to mix, they are emulsifiers
cetylÂ alcohol/stearylÂ specifically provides a creamy consistency to conditionersÂ

What about my hair?

Turns out the fattyÂ alcoholsÂ help hydrate the hair and makes the hair ‘appear soft’. The bonds are so big inÂ alcoholsÂ its unlikely that they would penetrate the hair shaft, kind of like the bonds in the protein of an egg.

Summary: not allÂ alcoholsÂ are created equal, so no worries!

source

CosmeticÂ Journal